Semiconductor chips containing integrated circuits are typically packaged. The chip communicates with external circuitry through an interconnect, such as package pins or balls on the outside of the package. Interconnects provide numerous signals to chips, such as command or address signals, data signals, clocking signals, etc.
A trend of increasing complexity in semiconductors is well known. Advancements in fabrication, coupled with improvements in design, have resulted in significantly higher transistor counts for a given area of semiconductor. As chip complexity increases, so does interconnect complexity, for example by increasing the number of pins or balls on a package housing an integrated circuit.
Semiconductor chip packages may be stacked to increase chip density. When semiconductor chip packages are stacked, numerous interconnects must be provided to connect each package to a host, channel, or other circuitry. The numerous interconnects are therefore complex, costly and can occupy valuable space in stacked packages.